Mechanics
The mechanics of League of War: Mercenaries are what defines gameplay and what happens during the player's experience. Knowing the mechanics can lead to better and more comprehensive gameplay. Units Units are the most important part of the game. They are various types of fighters always ready for combat, residing in the hangar when not in use. Stats Main article: Units . Click to enlarge]] Stats make up each individual unit that determines how powerful it is in battle. The player can check the stats of a unit in the hangar or in the officer's club when previewing units in a chest. * ATK - The average offensive capabilities of the unit. * DEF - How much damage the unit can take relative to other units. This number is not the actual health of the unit. * Cost (indicated by a yellow triangle) - How much deploy points the player needs to save up in order to deploy the unit. * VS type - How much additional damage the unit does towards a certain unit type, determined by faction. * Recharge - Time in between successive deploys while the unit "cools down". * Range - How far the unit can shoot. * Damage - How much damage the unit does in a single attack. * Fire rate - How fast the unit fires. * Speed - How fast the unit moves. Type Main article: Unit Types Units are categorized by what type they are. There are 5 distinct unit types, each with their own characteristics. * Infantry - Weak on their own but cheap and easy to deploy. * Recon - Fast moving vehicles with high damage and average defense. * Tank - Can take large amounts of damage and keep moving but deals low damage and has high deploy costs. * Artillery - Longer range than most units with high damage per shot but has high deploy costs and slow fire rates. * Air - Flying aircraft that have various different styles making them similar to either recon or tank units or even both. Faction Main article: Unit Faction All units come from a certain faction that allows them to deal higher damage than normal when attacking a certain unit type. A unit's faction is easily identified by the color scheme of the unit. ]] * Redpoint - Counters infantry * Greenbrake - Counters recon * Bluesteel - Counters tanks * Goldfire - Counters artillery * Whitehawk - Counters air Upgrading '' Main article: Hangar'' A unit can be upgraded using scrap and cash, increasing its stats and improving its performance in battle. All units have a level cap that prevents the unit from being upgraded further. The cap is dependent on the unit's current rank. As the unit is upgraded, more scrap is needed every time based on a linear scale. Promotion '' Main article: Hangar'' receiving a promotion]] When a unit has reached its level cap, it becomes eligible for a promotion. Promoting a unit increases its current rank by 1 and resets the unit back to level 1. A new tech slot or ability unlocks after promoting a unit. When promoting a unit, a number of units must be sacrificed. Rank Main article: Units A unit has two types of rank. A unit's current rank is represented by stars usually found floating above it. A unit's natural rank is how many stars it starts off with and is represented by the strip of color usually found behind the stars. A unit with a higher current rank has access to more tech slots and abilities. Units with a higher natural rank are rarer and usually have better stats than units with a lower natural rank promoted to the same number of stars. Squad Main article: Units The squad is the 4 units the player currently has lined up for battle. If the player taps the battle button, those four units will be what the player can use during the battle. A unit can be swapped out beforehand with another unit in reserve. Some units may not be used due to special limiters present on the battlefield and players are recommended to swap them out to still have access to a full squad during a battle. Combat Combat is a major part of the game and is important for the player if they wish to advance in the game. Many things can influence the events of a battle and possibly completely change the outcome. Environment Main article: Environments Environments are the terrain, weather, and time of day the battle is taking place in. The terrain causes changes to the player's starting deploy credits count and the generation of deploy credits and differ from biome to biome. In all terrain types except for the city, extreme weather may be present, preventing the player from deploying units of a certain type. * Arid - A battlefield in a desert. Disables infantry when extreme weather is present * Mountains - A battlefield in snowy mountains. Disables recon when extreme weather is present * Swamp - A battlefield in a swamp. Disables tanks when extreme weather is present * Plains - A battlefield in lush grass plains. Disables air units when extreme weather is present * City - A battlefield in a mostly destroyed city. Currently has no extreme weather Deploy Credits Deploy credits are used to deploy units during a battle and are generated over time. The player can see how much credits they currently have at the top-center area of the screen with two circles. These two circles are related to how fast deploy credits are generated and can have different behaviors depending on the environment. The inner-circle will gradually fill as time passes, adding another section to the outer-circle and reset when filled. The generation rate of deploy credits increases as more sections are added. Battle Timer In every battle the player participates in, a time limit of 3 minutes is imposed. The player needs to be able to win within this time limit, as a loss is incurred if the player fails to defeat their foe. The timer can be found at the top of the minimap near the bottom right corner of the screen. At 30 seconds or less, the timer turns yellow, urging the player to speed things up. At 10 seconds or less, the timer turns red, warning the player that a loss is imminent unless they can destroy the enemy base very quickly. Note that in the case of visual lag due to large amounts of explosions on the screen such as the ones caused by the Archon or Astro, the timer will continue counting down normally despite the battlefield lagging out and time within the battlefield is moving much slower. PVP vs. PVE There are a few differences between a battle against another player's squad and battling against an AI character. When fighting another player, the battle cannot be paused(though there are ways to do this without using the pause button). Additionally, the battle timer will count down as soon as the battle is initiated, meaning if the player is stuck at the loading screen for a longer time than usual due to connection issues, they will find that they have less time on the timer than usual, sometimes instantly causing a loss due to starting the battle with no time left on the timer. One last difference is that if the player runs out of time against an AI character, the player has the option to spend 10 gold to extend the battle for another 30 seconds. Against another player, the battle is instantly over and counted as a loss. Abilities Main article: Unit Ability stunning a Toleco]] Unit abilities are special actions that units can perform during a battle to shift the tides more towards the player's side. There are 2 types of abilities, active and passive. Active abilities activate only when attacking enemies while passive abilities activate when something happens to the player's units. Like units, abilities can be upgraded to become better. Active * Critical Strike - Extra damage is dealt. * Poison - Extra damage is dealt over time. * Explosive Rounds - Attack does splash damage to nearby enemies. * Weaken - Reduces enemy unit damage output. * Stun - Stuns enemy unit, causing them to stop attacking and moving. * Blind - Obscures enemy unit's vision, causing their attacks to miss. * Strengthen - Unit deals increased damage. * Ricochet - Attack bounces to other nearby enemies. * Bounty - Grants deploy credits when hitting an enemy unit of a certain type.* * Deterrence - Drains enemy deploy credits when killing an enemy unit of a certain type. * Credit Drain - Drains enemy deploy credits when attacking the enemy base. *Currently either bugged or description in-game is wrong. Supposed to be a chance to activate when killing an enemy unit of a certain type, not hitting one. Passive * Block - Enemy attack does nothing. * Anti-Missile Ray - Blocks artillery shots. * Armor - Reduces all incoming damage. * Explosive Mine - Drops a damage-dealing mine upon death. * Stun Mine - Drops a mine that stuns enemy units when triggered upon death. * Smoke Mine - Drops a mine that blinds enemy units when triggered upon death. * Explode Revenge - Explode upon death, dealing damage. * Stun Revenge - Stun all enemy units in range upon death. * Blind Revenge - Blind all enemy units in range upon death. * Frenzy - Become strengthened when hit. * Heal - Restores health to all units on the battlefield upon deploy. * Shield - Gives all friendly units on the battlefield a damage-absorbing shield upon deploy. * Deploy Discount - Reduces the unit's recharge time upon death. * Death Refund - Grant deploy credits upon death. * Ordinance - Spawn 3 missiles that deal damage upon deploy. Tech Main article: Tech Tech are items that can be installed on units to give them a boost in a certain stat. Tech comes in 5 levels, each providing a bigger boost than lower levels. * Ammo - Increases damage * Platings - Increases defense * Loaders - Increases fire rate * Sights - Increases range * Thrusters - Increases speed * VS ammo - Increases faction boost Faction Boost Main article: Unit Faction When a unit attacks an enemy unit of the type the unit counters, the unit deals extra damage. This extra damage is dependent on the unit's current rank and can be increased with tech. Bonus damage from faction boosts also applies to several damage-altering abilities. Defense Towers '' Main article: Defense Yard'' Defense towers are special buildings that can be installed on the player's base. Each tower has its own way of supporting the player during battle and can be upgraded to become better at their functions. The base can support up to 6 towers. Up to 4 of the same kind of tower can be built and installed at the same time. * Bunker - Absorbs more damage than other towers. * Cannon Tower - Deals damage by shooting. Increased damage against recon. * Satellite Link - Increases starting deploy credits. * Anti-Air Tower - Deals damage by shooting. Increased damage against air. Slightly shorter range than other shooting towers. * Garrison - Reduces infantry deploy costs. * Motorpool - Reduces recon deploy costs. * Sniper Tower - Deals damage by shooting. Increased damage against infantry. Farther range than other shooting towers. * Tank Depot - Reduces tank deploy costs. * ATC - Reduces air deploy costs. * Rocket Tower - Deals damage by shooting. Increased damage against tanks. Special Battles Main articles: Onslaught, Flashpoint Sometimes, a battle is subject to special rules that change how the battle is fought. In an onslaught style battle, any units used in previous battles cannot be used again, requiring the player not only to have powerful units but have plentiful amounts of units as well. In a flashpoint mission, only units from a certain faction can be used. Enemy squads are also only composed of a single unit type that is weak against the allowed faction. Buildings Buildings are structures found in the player's base that performs various tasks or grants access to special battles with special rewards. Like units, buildings can be upgraded to become better and grant better benefits to the player. Crafting '' Main article: Machine Shop'' Crafting allows the player to construct new units for their army using cash after gathering enough unit parts. The player can also create rank medals using parts found in onslaughts that can be used to help promote other units. Crafting is also the only way to obtain natural 6-star units without having to finish first place in a weekly event. Research '' Main article: Research Lab'' Research can help the player by providing building upgrade boosts and slightly reducing unit deploy costs. All research is done in the research lab and uses oil. As the player upgrades the lab, more advanced projects appear providing better boosts at the cost of more oil. Alliances '' Main article: Alliance'' Alliances are groups that can be created or joined to ally with other players and have easier methods of interacting with them. Alliance members have access to a unique alliance chat, in which messages sent can only be seen by other alliance members, allowing discussion of strategies or other important topics in secret without having to broadcast messages in global chat. Being a member of an alliance is required to participate in most events. As an alliance, all members contribute points towards the alliance's rank in the event and compete with other alliances for rare event units. Leagues '' Main article: Leagues'' Leagues are methods in which alliances and players themselves can show off how powerful they are and how many battles they can win. Currently, there are 2 types of leagues. One is based on the entire alliance's efforts and the other is based on the player's own efforts. At the end of each league, scores are evaluated and players or alliances may be promoted or demoted to a different league tier based on performance. Leagues are also the source of daily rewards as long as a league is active. Resources and Raids Cash and oil, the two most used resources, are stored in the vault and oil silo respectively and are generated by banks and oil derricks. While they can be stolen in raids, any that are stored in the command center is completely safe and only a certain percentage of the player's max storage in the vault and oil silo can actually be stolen. This means that as long as the player remains below the threshold, nothing from their vault and silo can be lost from raids. However, any cash and oil that is generated and stored in banks and derricks waiting for collection are always vulnerable to being stolen. Players are advised to check their base every so often to minimize losses.